A Poem

from Fra Lippo Lippi,
by Robert Browning

...We're made so that we love
First when we see them painted, things we have passed
Perhaps a hundred times nor cared to see;
And so they are better, painted -- better to us,
Which is the same thing. Art was given for that;
God uses us to help each other so,
Lending our minds out...
This world's no blot for us,
Nor blank; it means intensely and means good:
To find its meaning is my meat and drink.
1855



Having spent 6 weeks in February and March 2009 at the Goldwell Open Air Museum's Red Barn (near Beatty Nevada) as a Workspace Resident, I returned in November to paint a full panorama of the space. I had played at working the space in oils on small panels earlier, but this time I wanted to try large linen panels. I also did a small scale set of studies for the larger panels. The set above, called Days of the Amargosa is 5 feet high and 28 feet long. The image above, photograph by David Lancaster, is the way the linen panels looked on November 30, exactly 30 days after I began cutting the rolls of linen to size.

Here are images of the individual panels:



Unoriented Amargosa, Panel 1 (east),  4 x 5',  Oil on linen, 2009



Unoriented Amargosa, Panel 2 (east),  4 x 5',  Oil on linen, 2009





Unoriented Amargosa, Panel 3 (east),  4 x 5',  Oil on linen, 2009



Unoriented Amargosa, Panel 4 (central),  4 x 5',  Oil on linen, 2009


Unoriented Amargosa, Panel 5 (west),  4 x 5',  Oil on linen, 2009




Unoriented Amargosa, Panel 6 (west),  4 x 5',  Oil on linen, 2009




Unoriented Amargosa, Panel 7 (west),  4 x 5',  Oil on linen, 2009




Unoriented  Amargosa, 28' x 5', Oil on linen, 2009

All the images and work are copyrighted by June O. Underwood.